Goldman won’t take companies public without at least one “diverse” board member
Goldman Sachs won’t take companies public anymore unless they have at least one “diverse” board member, the bank’s CEO David Solomons, according to an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“From a governance perspective, diversity on boards is a very, very important issue,” says Solomon.
GS itself has four women on its board of directors, out of 11 total members.
Goldman’s push for diversity will be focused primarily on women: Over the past four years, initial public offerings of companies in the United States with at least one female director on their boards performed “significantly better” compared to those without, mentions the CEO.
The initiative will kick off on 1 July in the United States and Europe. By 2021, the bank will look for two diverse board members, he adds.
Read more: Fintech’s diversity performance last year and predictions for 2020
A spokesperson for the bank confirmed Solomon’s comments made to CNBC on 23 January at Davos, represented Goldman Sachs’ new policy.
Goldman Sachs (GS) itself has four women on its board of directors, out of 11 total members. While Solomon is the chairman of the board, its lead director is Nigerian-born Adebayo O. Ogunlesi.
This wasn’t Solomon’s first comment on environmental, social and governance initiatives at Davos.
On Wednesday, he pushed back on the idea that the bank should pass on working with companies that lack green credentials.
“Should we draw a line and say we will not raise money for a company that is a carbon company, a fossil fuel company? And the answer to that is, we’re not going to do that, we’re not going to draw a line,” he says. “However, we are trying to allocate capital to businesses that help the transition to a more carbon-neutral world.”
